A very good place to look is the entry on economics and political economy in
the New (1987) Palgrave by Peter Groenewegen. Or even the entry in the
original Palgrave - if my memory serves me well - by Sidgwick.
Jevons in the preface to the second 1879 edition of TPE credits Henry Dunning
Macleod with the reintroduction of the word.
"Among minor alterations, I may mention the substitution for the name Political
Economy of the single convenient term Economics. I cannot help thinking that it
would be well to discard, as quickly as possible, the old troublesome double-
worded name of our Science. Several authors have tried to introduce totally new
names, such as Plutology, Chrematistics, Catallactics, etc. But why do we need
anything better than Economics? This term, besides being more familiar and
closely related to the old term, is perfectly analogous in form to Mathematics,
Ethics, AEsthetics, and the names of various other branches of knowledge, and
it has moreover the authority of usage from the time of Aristotle. Mr. Macleod
is, so far as I know, the re-introducer of the name in recent years, but it
appears to have been adopted also by Mr. Alfred Marshall at Cambridge. It is
thus to be hoped that Economics will become the recognised name of a science,
which nearly a century ago was known to the French Economists as la science
?conomique. Though employing the new name in the text, it was obviously
undesirable to alter the title-page of the book."
Note, however, that the term also appears in the posthumous translation of
Francis Hutcheson's 1742 _Philosophiae moralis institutio compendiaria. The
book was translated in 1747 as _A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy.
Hutcheson, however, is Aristotelian in the use of the term "economics"
("Oeconomicks treat of the rights and obligations in a family"). [I quote from
the second 1753 edition, iii.1, p. 243]. He divides Oeconomicks into three
categories, "concerning marriage", "the duties of parents and children"
and "of masters and servants" following closely Aristotle's Politics (1753, p.
235).
See my "NICOMACHEAN ETHICS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY: THE TRAJECTORY OF THE PROBLEM
OF VALUE", History of Economic Ideas, xiv/2006/1.
Moreover see the entry economics in the Oxford English Dictionary:
With sing. and pl. concord. (In most senses predominantly with singular concord
after the end of the 18th cent.)
1. a. The science or art of household management; domestic economy; (also)
a treatise on this subject (see etymology at ECONOMIC n. and adj.). Cf. HOME
ECONOMICS n.
1535 W. MARSHALL tr. Marsilius of Padua Def. of Peace iii. f. 12v,
[Aristotle's] oeconomykes [L. Iconomia], wherin he treateth of the gouernynge
and ordrynge of an howse or howsholde. 1560 Bk. Discipline in Wks. J. Knox
(1848) II. 214 In the secound colledge, in the first classe, one reader onlie
in the ethicques, oeconomicques and politiques. 1584 T. COGAN Hauen of Health
ii. 14 Aristotle..in his Oeconomikes..biddeth us to rise before day. a1619 M.
FOTHERBY Atheomastix (1622) II. xiv. ?2. 356 Morall Philosophie..hath three
parts: Ecclesiastickes, Oeconomickes, and Politickes. 1661 J. GLANVILL Vanity
of Dogmatizing xvii. 166 The more practical ones of Politicks and Oeconomicks.
1701 P. WARWICK Disc. Govt. 104 A Princes Politicks will be as improsperous as
his Oeconomicks are, who loves to spend freely, and yet never to look upon an
account. 1770 J. LANGHORNE & W. LANGHORNE tr. Plutarch Lives (1879) II. 586/2
Economics, so far as they regard only inanimate things, serve only the low
purposes of gain; but where they regard human beings they rise higher. 1832
Times 9 July 4/4 The mysteries of cooking..which this young lady is now about
to collect, arrange, and classify, in a code of trans-Atlantic culinary
economics. 1909 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 14 741 "With respect to labor," says
Aristotle's Economics, "the one sex is by nature capable of attending to
domestic duties, but weak in duties out of doors." 1989 16th Cent. Jrnl. 20 450
Renaissance commentators were fond of reiterating women's household
responsibilities set forth in the spurious third book of Aristotle's Economics.
b. The management of private or domestic finances; (also) financial
position.
1851 T. CARLYLE Life J. Sterling I. iv. 41 The family economics getting yearly
more propitious and flourishing. 1851 T. CARLYLE Life J. Sterling II. vi. 140
The Original Regulations..a very solid lucid piece of economics. 1956 Times 14
May 3/4 Few housekeepers seem to make any real attempt to keep track of
expenses. Others seem incapable of attempting to discuss family economics with
their husbands. 1978 Newsweek (Nexis) 23 Oct. 75 Spurred by Federal
deregulation and their own economics, many scheduled carriers are dropping
unprofitable "puddle jumps" to concentrate on the big-buck, long-haul business.
1983 Times 5 Jan. 4/8 The rule..will mean a serious blow to the family
economics of quite a few bureaucrats.
2. The branch of knowledge (now regarded as one of the social sciences)
that deals with the production, distribution, consumption, and transfer of
wealth; the application of this discipline to a particular sphere; (also) the
condition of a state, etc., as regards material prosperity; the financial
considerations attaching to a particular activity, commodity, etc.
In early use as a compound (rural economics), prob. in distinction
to "domestic" economics (sense 1). The term economics was used without
qualification in the 19th cent. as a less frequent equivalent to political
economy (POLITICAL adj. and n. Special uses 2; now sometimes referred to
as "classical economics" and associated with Adam Smith, Ricardo, Mill, and
others). A more mathematical approach to the discipline ("Neoclassical
economics") was promoted by Alfred Marshall (1842-1924, Professor of Political
Economy at the University of Cambridge from 1864 until 1877: see quots. 1879
and 1890), who popularized the use of economics at the expense of political
economy. Various schools of economics emphasize the interplay between humans
and the material resources of a nation, etc., to various degrees over
mathematical factors.
Sometimes with modifying word or affix, as in BIOECONOMICS n., MICROECONOMICS
n., MACROECONOMICS n., etc. Cf. also -NOMICS comb. form.
1764 W. HARTE Ess. Husbandry I. 63 Some prize-questions in rural oeconomics
were then proposed annually, particularly by the two Academies of Lyons and
Bourdeaux. 1792 A. YOUNG Trav. France 176 He..engaged to go with me..to Tour
D'Aigues to wait on The baron..whose essays are among the most valuable on
rural conomics. 1839 T. CARLYLE Chartism iv. 26 The oppression has gone far
farther than into the economics of Ireland. 1841-4 R. W. EMERSON Ess. 1st Ser.
(1876) vii. 181 Chemistry, natural history, and economics. 1844 B. DISRAELI
Coningsby I. III. iii. 283 Those moral attributes..are independent of
economics. 1863 M. HOWITT tr. F. Bremer Greece & Greeks I. v. 138 The
improvement of Greece in economics. 1879 A. MARSHALL & M. P. MARSHALL Economics
of Industry 2, I therefore proposed to term it [sc. economic science]
Economics..and I am happy to say that this suggestion is now meeting with very
general acceptance. Wherever you turn now the term economics meets your eye.
1881 P. GEDDES in Nature 29 Sept. 526/1 Those sections..were devoted
to..physical economics. 1890 A. MARSHALL Princ. Economics I. 1 Political
Economy, or Economics, is a study of man's actions in the ordinary business of
life; it inquires how he gets his income and how he uses it. 1906 J. S. STUART-
GLENNIE in Sociol Pap. II. 250 The second order of ethical sciences..form the
contents of three classes of sciencesEconomics, Deontics, and Juridics. 1914 J.
A. HOBSON Work & Wealth xxii. 326 The difficulty is best illustrated in the
recent extension of quantitative analysis into economics by the method of
marginal preferences. 1924 T. N. CARVER (title) Elements of rural economics.
1938 Amer. Econ. Rev. 28 17 In his messianic zeal for the new order Marx built
up a system of economics to support his preconceptions. 1958 J. K. GALBRAITH
Affluent Society iii. 20 As the man who first gave economics its modern
structurewho looked at the factors determining prices, rents, wages, and
profits..Ricardo has a special claim to have bent the twig. 1967 Times Rev.
Industry Mar. 103/2 (advt.) Lecturer..in Management Science... Applicants
should have a good honours degree..in a "numerate" subject (e.g., engineering,
mathematics, mathematical economics, physics, statistics). 1988 Oxf. Today 1
35/2 "Not just teaching economics, but doing it well, in Whitehall twice, and
as a member of, or adviser to, three successive quangos." 2002 P. AUGER & J.
PALMER Rise of Player Manager ii. 11 New economic policies built around
monetarism in the UK, supply-side economics in the US and a belief nearly
everywhere in the virtues of open market competition and deregulation,
transformed the environment for business.
3. With pl. concord. The financial considerations relating to a particular
activity, project, or commodity. Chiefly with of.
1879 Times 26 Apr. 11/5 The ethics and economics of smuggling ought by this
time to be pretty clearly understood. 1937 Amer. Home Apr. 4/2 To account for
the present providential situation would be to delve into..the psychology of
the home owner, the economics of real estate. 1970 T. SOUTHERN Blue Movie IV.
xxiii. 256 The economics of film-making today simply are not compatible with
budget allocations of exorbitant fees for the actors. 1983 J. S. FOSTER
Structure & Fabric (rev. ed.) I. iii. 13/2 His choices must be made in terms
of..the economics of the end result. 2001 Contact May 63/2 The economics of
notebook production..dictate that only the very biggest players can
afford..their own designs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHRASES
economics of scale n. the (beneficial) economic and financial effects of
increasing the scale of an (esp. industrial) process; cf. economies of scale n.
at ECONOMY n. Phrases 2.
1972 Observer 20 Aug. 9/7 The economics of scale, that much-abused phrase, used
to justify any increase in size. 2002 R. PORTER Blood & Guts viii. 155 Since
then the iron law has been expansion, capital investment, bureaucratization,
commodification and the economics of scale and the division of labour.
Nicholas J. Theocarakis
|
